In airports, or other locations employing publicly accessible conveyors, advertisements are sometimes conspicuously displayed on the conveyor panels. Typically, the advertisements are affixed to the conveyor panel either by means of an adhesive or using screws to pass through an overlying transparent sheet. The presence of screws in the display area detracts from the image quality. The use of adhesive to affix the advertisements makes subsequent removal of the advertisement difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,980, issued to Munkner et al., discloses printing advertisements on sheets of polyethylene, or similar material, and affixing them to the conveyor panels by way of a pressure sensitive adhesive. One of the main disadvantages of such sheets is their poor durability. Baggage carried on the conveyor tends to scratch and tear the sheet material. In addition, removal of sheet material from conveyor panels is time-consuming requiring either peeling off the sticker and removing the adhesive left behind or replacing the entire panel by a new panel with a new advertisement sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,526, issued to Conklin Jr. discloses a conveyor system with conveyor panels that are constructed from transparent material. Each transparent conveyor panel has a viewable section and an overlapping section. An advertising sheet is affixed onto the underside of the viewable section of the transparent conveyor panel with an adhesive applied to the top surface of the advertising sheet. Conklin Jr. also discloses the use of ink that is hot stamped directly onto the transparent panels. As in the case of conveyor panels with decals for advertising material, advertising sheets glued to the transparent conveyor panels are difficult to remove limiting the reuse of these panels. Consequently, the entire panel must be removed from the conveyor belt and replaced with a new panel containing a new advertising sheet. Such a system is expensive and time-consuming. Obviously, when the advertising message is hot stamped directly onto the transparent panels, the transparent panel cannot be reused and must be replaced with a new panel having a new hot stamped message.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,831 issued to Conklin Jr. discloses a panel for use with conveyors having a belt plate instead of a conventional conveyor panel, a recess defined by spacers extending from at least two edges of the belt plate, and a transparent cover plate fastened to a top surface of the recess. An advertising sheet is affixed to the underside of a transparent cover plate with an adhesive. The transparent cover plate is then affixed by way of screws to the surface of the belt plate. This method of changing advertising sheets is labor intensive and the presence of screws through the advertisements may detract from the visual message on the sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,227, issued to Crandall et al, discloses a conveyor system with porcelain enamel on steel pallets which are coupled to supporting members with wheels that roll along wheel tracks when a motive force is provided. Airport luggage carousels can be converted to this system by replacing the existing panels with porcelain enamel steel pallets. The porcelain enamel may have indicia or decorative designs. The main disadvantage of this conveyor system is the expense since changing an advertisement would require replacing the old porcelain enamel on the steel pallets with porcelain enamel having new indicia.
Conveyor belt apparatus for airports are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,390, issued to Petersen and U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,592, issued to Stimpson. There is no disclosure of displaying advertisements on conveyor panels in either of these patents.
Other types of display belts for advertisements are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,828, issued to Smallwood, U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,591, issued to Habegger et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,094, issued to Molinaro et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,472, issued to Look, U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,918, issued to Mazzocco, Sr., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,080, issued to Bierbaum. None of the above patents disclose applications for airport conveyors or conveyor panels. In any event, none of the devices disclosed in the above patents would be able to withstand the abuse caused by heavy luggage on a normal airport conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,828, issued to Smallwood, discloses an endless belt display device for moving conveyor belt systems at checkout stands. The endless belt display has a top surface and a transparent panel having all but one edge bonded to the top surface of the belt. The panel forms a pocket with the belt that is adapted for receiving advertisements through the unbonded edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,918, issued to Mazzocco, Sr. discloses a continuous display device with display panels having a permanent portion and a removable portion. The permanent portion consists of an inner sheet of translucent or transparent plastic material. The removable portion consists of a pair of outer sheets of transparent material that form a pocket into which is inserted an advertising display sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,591, issued to Habegger et al, discloses a conveyor belt with advertising indicia on a visible surface. A film of transparent plastic covers the visible surface to protect the advertising indicia. U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,094, issued to Molinaro et al, discloses a conveyor belt of the type to be used at checkout counters with advertisements that adhere to the conveyor belt through electrostatic attraction. U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,472, issued to Look, discloses a traveling tape display to be mounted on a store window where the advertising indicia is printed on the tape. U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,080, issued to Bierbaum discloses an information bearing belt conveyor with two layers. The top viewable layer has windows for receiving inserts with outlines of letters or figures. The shape of the windows are complementary to the inserts.
The present invention is designed to overcome many of the disadvantages and shortcomings of methods and apparatus for displaying advertising information on conveyor panels. Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide a device and a method of affixing advertisements to conveyor panels in such a way as to facilitate their installation and removal.